sick fishy please help:(

[emiliaellen]

my guppy has been on erythromycin for 3 days now for treating fin rot (his tail is actually growing back!) and since yesterday, he has just been sitting at the bottom of the tank. originally he would hover over the rocks, still swimming, but now he more just sits and only moves for small periods very rarely. he hasn’t been eating at all even when the food falls right infront of him. water temp is good and so are all the other water perimeters. is this normal for fishies on antibiotics or should i be concerned? let me know if you all have any suggestions on how to help him out. thank you all

 

[charliebankston]

It may be just the medicine. Just like when we take antibiotics or sick, it's hard on our bodies. There's no guarantee unfortunately that our pets will be able to recover from serious illness. Did you do the water change after the first 2 days of treatment?

 

[emiliaellen]

i did do a 25% water chance on day 3 since that is what it said to do per instructions on the box. would it be beneficial to change more of the water (maybe another 25%?) or could that have negative effect on the antibiotics?

 

[charliebankston]

I've always just followed the directions on the box. Remember too that it might have a detrimental effect on your beneficial bacteria and kill the cycle. So watch ammonia build up in there

 

[emiliaellen]

he’s all done with antibiotic treatment now and i moved him back into the original tank where he was much happier for about an hour. about an hour in we noticed a new hole in his tail that has now progressed to another full cut in his tail so he’s now at basically 3 shreds of tail left. it doesn’t seem to be the fin rot again since it’s happening a little differently. he seemed so unhappy in the quarantine tank so i don’t want to do that to him again but i don’t know what to do

 

[charliebankston]

It could be just new tissue growing back that tore. How's his behavior?

 

[charliebankston]

How is the water quality in the main tank?

 

[emiliaellen]

i was thinking that also but his fin that had grown back is now gone again so i’m leaning away from that a little now. the water quality should be fine in the other tank since there is another fish in there doing great, although we have had some ammonia issues in the past. i think i’ll move him back into the quarantine tank tonight and try to do some treatment with aquarium salt.

 

[charliebankston]

OK, I hope that works. You might do some research on fin rot causes so it doesn't keep repeating too